 A truant, according to Illinois state law, is "any person subject to
compulsory school attendance who is absent without valid cause from
such attendance for a school day or a portion thereof. Valid cause
for absence may include observance of a religious holiday,
documented student illness or injury requiring a doctor's care, a
death in the student's immediate family, situations beyond the
control of the student as determined by a district board of
education, or such other circumstances which cause reasonable
concern to the parent for the safety of the student." (105
ILCS 5/26-2a)
A chronic truant is any person subject to compulsory
school attendance who is absent without valid cause from such
attendance for 10 percent or more of the previous 180 school days.
SPIRIT truancy program: Special Prevention Intervention
Remediation Involving Truancy
The SPIRIT truancy program of the Logan-Mason-Menard Regional
Office of Education offers assistance to 11 of the 13 districts in
the region, while Lincoln Community High School District 404 and
Porta District 202 in Menard County have their own programs.
The SPIRIT program offers intervention services that provide
tutoring, mentoring, health care or whatever the needs of the child
and family may be. The program networks with outside agencies that
can be called on for assistance to the family, and the services
provided are personalized to meet those specific needs, whatever
they may be.
Anderson says that truancy can be caused by a variety of things.
It can be something that is easily cured with a little assistance
from the program, or it can be a deeper problem that requires
specific intervention.
For example, in the case of younger students, it may be a
situation that the parents are experiencing, rather than the child.
Anderson offers an example:
"We had a situation where a young child and her family were
living, temporarily, in a motel, which was located across a very
busy street, and the parent didn't have a car. The parent had been
walking the child to school during the warm weather, but as weather
got cold, the child started missing school.
"Our office was notified of the absences, and we sent the first
notification letter, as required by law. The truancy caseworkers had
a conversation with the parent and learned that the parent was
keeping the child home because it was dangerous for the child to
walk in the severe cold. We worked out a way for them to have some
transportation, and the issue was resolved."
Another example stems from her time as a teacher prior to
becoming the regional superintendent. Anderson says that, as
children get older, some causes of truancy can become more
complicated.
"In my years as a junior high teacher, I heard of a few
situations where a child's life was so exciting or stimulating to
him or her -- and not in a good way -- that school didn't hold the
same fascination that life on the outside did," she said.
"Particularly when sex, drugs or some other sort of illicit behavior
are involved, there is an adrenaline rush kind of thing involved
that those students don't get in school.
"Because the truancy program is many-faceted, the ROE, with its
agency partners, can offer intervention and assistance to such
students, as well as to those whose situations have different
precipitating factors. Again, we hope to reach students soon enough
that they can be assisted in making positive choices and maintaining
regular attendance in school. Fortunately, we have only a few
students who reach the chronic level."
Anderson goes on to explain that chronic truancy can be a matter
of when students have reached the point that they have missed so
much school and are so far behind in their learning that they lose
hope and feel it is not possible to succeed in school and, thus,
feel it may be pointless to attend. In those cases there are
tutoring and mentoring programs that can be set in place to assist
the child in getting back up to speed.
However, the main reason for the truancy program is to assist
students, their families and the schools so that children do not
reach the point where they become chronic truants.
Anderson explains the truancy process as follows:
"The first step in truancy intervention occurs with the building
principal notifying the truancy caseworkers that a student has been
absent for a total of five days. In compliance with the compulsory
attendance law in Illinois, the ROE then sends a letter home to the
parents reminding them that their children need to be in school on
the day immediately following the day the letter is received.
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"If attendance doesn't improve, when children have missed 10
days, we send a second letter, which is a little stronger, but
which, again, orders the child to school on the day following
receipt of the letter. In the meantime, caseworkers make contact
with students and, generally, with their families, in order to
discover what issues might be causing the student's absences and
offering support in various ways. Caseworkers complete an
Individualized Optional Education Plan, which sets and documents
both attendance and academic goals for the student and which is
signed by the caseworker, the student, the school, and the parent or
guardian.
"About the 15th day, if absence without valid cause continues, we
send another letter and set up a truancy review hearing, which is
also required by law. The hearing is a process that tries to provide
additional assistance and set some further goals, which may include
a community service component, depending upon the age of the
student. The IOEP is also reviewed so that if we haven't been
totally successful assisting a family early on, this is another
point at which other agencies can become involved.
"At the 18th day, students are considered chronically truant,
which means that they have missed enough of the school year that it
is going to have a significant impact on their success. Upon further
absence, children or their parents may be referred to the state's
attorney's office."
Anderson says that, throughout her region, students seldom reach
the 15th or 18th days of truancy. Situations are usually resolved,
and the child is back in class before any serious consequences
occur.
She points out that because student absences occur throughout the
school term, it is sometimes a case of parents not realizing how
much their child has missed. In addition, they may not realize the
impact of those missed days. Anderson explains that missing 20 days
of class, even if it is one day every other week, constitutes a
month of absence and can have a significant negative impact on a
child's success in school.
In cases of younger children where the absences are being caused
by a problem the parent is having, she says that the long-term
ramifications have been illustrated in recent studies that suggest
children who do not maintain regular attendance in kindergarten have
a higher dropout rate once they reach high school, compared with
students who did attend regularly in those early years.
Another consequence of truancy is that the child and parents are
in violation of the law. The compulsory education law extends to
students between the age of 7 and 17 in Illinois. There are some
exceptions, but for the most part, unless students are enrolled in a
public, private or parochial school -- and attending regularly, they
are in violation of the law.
Anderson says it is very rare to see this happen, but it is
possible that chronic truancy can lead to the removal of a child
from a home.
The SPIRIT program's aim is to reach the family and resolve any
issues they are having before it gets to this degree of severity.
To learn more about the Logan-Mason-Menard Regional Office of
Education, visit
http://logan.k12.il.us/roe38/.
[By NILA SMITH]
Part 1 of series:
Regional Superintendent of Schools Jean Anderson offers insight
on the duties of the office
Part 2:
Homelessness in Logan County and other
issues
A discussion with Regional Superintendent of Schools Jean
Anderson
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